Hedwig and the Angry Inch

It’s a freakin’ masterpiece. The more I listen to the music and rerun parts of Hedwig and the Angry Inch in my mind, and put things together, the more I come to the conclusion that it really is a great movie and I’m right to adore it.

As Hedwig, John Cameron Mitchell is phenomenal.

Michael Pitt plays Hedwig’s lost love and professional rival. When he was asked to audition for the movie, he hadn’t seen the stage production, so they took him. He was, in his words, “blown away,” and made sure to attend the few remaining performances. Which would be the reaction of any intelligent actor, given a chance to try out for Tommy Gnosis. Additionally, Pitt endured the actor’s hell of multiple auditions. Mitchell looked at him four or five times, he says, before offering him the role. Pitt told Movement magazine,

They let me in on something really incredible. It was a blessing. It’s a movie like…you don’t see. It’s something that’s completely new. It’s pure, it’s really pure.

In the movie version, and probably in the stage version, though I don’t know for sure, the song “The Origin of Love” is accompanied by a very cool animated film that portrays a creation myth said to be based on Plato’s Symposium.

In his novel, Wakefield, Andrei Codrescu expressed much the same thought:

God, you’ll remember, didn’t want any competition from his creation, so he split up Adam and Eve in order that the separated halves might compete with each other leaving Him the absolute boss.

I’m not a heavy linker, but I did take some time looking for the best versions of some parts of this movie, as excerpted by various YouTube patrons. The results:

Wig in a Box
“This is the best way that I’ve found
to be the best you’ve ever seen.”
An exceptionally inspirational song.

Midnight Radio
Play this 7 minutes for me when I’m dying, and I’ll either recover quick or go out extremely happy.

Wicked Little Town
Have I mentioned that I heart Michael Pitt?

Tags: Andrei Codrescu, John Cameron Mitchell, Michael Pitt